Logistics across Europe

European fulfilment has one property that the American version does not: the cheaper option in per-unit terms is usually the more expensive option in compliance terms. Comparing them honestly means adding the second number, which most comparisons leave out because it is annual rather than per unit.

The options, restated

• Stock in one country, shipped across borders. One registration to start, higher per-unit fulfilment cost, slower delivery to distant customers.
• Stock in several countries. Amazon's Pan-European programme places inventory in at least two of Germany, France, Italy, Spain or Poland, redistributes at no extra charge, and requires listings in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands with identical SKUs. Amazon states that a VAT number is required for each country where goods are stored.¹
• Ship it yourself from your own warehouse or a third-party one, taking on the delivery metrics in exchange for control.

How to compare them honestly

Put both numbers in the same sentence. For a second country of storage, the annual cost is roughly: the VAT registration, the recurring filings, the adviser, plus your own time on another set of deadlines. The annual benefit is the per-unit fulfilment saving multiplied by the units you will actually sell there, plus whatever the faster delivery does to your conversion.

The honest version of this calculation usually says: not yet. A second registration pays for itself at volume, and a country producing a handful of orders a week does not reach it. That is why lesson 0 suggested starting with one country of storage and adding the second when its own numbers justify it.

Prep, labelling and packaging

The mechanics are those of the U.S. course's fulfilment lesson: transparent sealed bags where bagging is required, a suffocation warning on bags with an opening larger than five inches, clean scannable labels, and every other barcode covered.² Read the current requirements in Seller Central for the European marketplaces, since details and units differ between Amazon's pages.

What Europe adds is packaging as a compliance matter rather than only a logistics one. The producer registrations from lesson 5 are calculated on the packaging you place on each national market, which means the packaging specification is also a reporting input. Weigh and record it once, properly, rather than estimating it every year.

Returns across borders

Returns are handled in the country of the customer, which is straightforward when Amazon fulfils and less so when you do. If you ship yourself into several countries, decide in advance where returns go, what a cross-border return costs you, and whether the product is worth the return freight at all. For low-value goods the answer is sometimes no, and it is better to know that before designing the process.

The loop back to tax

Every change in where stock sits changes your registrations. A new country of storage means a new registration before goods arrive. Closing one means deregistering properly rather than letting filings lapse, because a dormant registration with missed nil returns generates penalties in silence. Treat the fulfilment settings and the tax calendar as one system, reviewed together.

Mistakes

• Comparing fulfilment options on per-unit fees alone. The compliance cost is annual and real.
• Enabling placement countries before registering.
• Estimating packaging weights that later become the basis of producer reporting.
• Letting a registration go dormant instead of deregistering.
• Shipping yourself into several countries without a returns plan.
• Sending six months of stock and paying long-term storage on the tail.

Next

Lesson 8 is listings and language: translation that does not create returns, pricing per country, and how advertising differs across the European stores.